Located at O’Leary’s Tiki Bar & Grill – 5 Bayfront Dr, Sarasota, FL 34236

“This current mural I am calling “Seas the Dream” I do a lot painting when I go to sleep, in my head and in my dreams the painting is always flawless much like when you dive in the ocean and no matter what is going on above the water, under the water looks like a dream. Dreams aren’t meant to make sense and during the mural I’ve learned a lot that sometime it doesn’t have to make sense to look flawless. With every brush stroke, shadows are created, creatures become close or further. ” -Andrew Viera

Artist Biography –  
My name is Andrew Viera and lived in Bradenton most of my younger years. I went to Palmetto High school but always struggled with boredom and not being challenged where I spent a lot of time doodling, sketching and unfortunately skipping classes. I decided school wasn’t for me when I was 17 and joined the Army. My son was born in 2010 in El Paso, TX and a few months after I was ordered to Germany where I spent almost 7 years traveling as a truck driver to Slovakia, Bulgaria, Poland, France and Afghanistan. I knew when I came home, I was different, separated, cold, distant and so I started a regular job working at night because I didn’t want to be around a lot of people. I struggled with drugs and alcohol for a little until I started painting again. I bought an easel and every day after work I started a painting. I can’t tell you what I thought about because when I paint, thoughts don’t cloud your mind, you just think about the painting. I painted mostly for friends and family, birthdays and family gifts. A friend showed some of my artwork to her mom who is a manager at the AMOB (Ana’s Maria Oyster Bar) location in Ellenton, Fl. They were looking for an artist to paint a mural of wings made of oysters. I’ve never done anything like this before but knew it was something I wanted to try. Never did I think I’d be where I am now painting murals and art for my full time business. I think every business owner has a time in their life or there in between do you know the regular day job and wondering if they have what it takes to start their business. That moment for me was when my son and I were talking, and he was telling me his dream of what he wanted to be when he grew up. He asked me if my job was my dream when I was younger and I told him , no, that gel coating for the marine industry was never my dream, My dream was to be an artist and he asked, why I wasn’t doing that. I was about to tell him that it doesn’t pay the bills but I trusted God would put me in the right place to make it happen an HE did.